Scratchgravel Road
A Mystery
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3.3 • 4 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
The twisty follow-up to the Hillerman Prize–winning The Territory, featuring tough smalltown Texas police chief Josie Gray
It was pure luck that Josie Gray spotted Cassidy Harper's car, abandoned on the side of the road. If she hadn't, then she'd never have found Cassidy, lying nearly dead of heatstroke on the desert sand beside the body of a Mexican immigrant. But Cassidy can't explain why she was out for a walk in the midday desert heat, let alone how she happened upon the corpse. And once Josie sees the ominous wounds on the man's body, she knows she needs to find the answer fast, before her own life is in danger.
Tricia Fields's The Territory marked her as talented new author of Southwestern crime, and Scratchgravel Road marks an inventive new mystery set in the unique world of smalltown Texas.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Fields sounds a warning on industrial dangers and their wide-ranging effects on ordinary people in this engrossing follow-up to her Hillerman Prize winning debut, The Territory (2011). When Artemis, Tex., police chief Josie Gray comes across unconscious store clerk Cassidy Harper in the desert, Josie also spots the decaying corpse of immigrant Juan Santiago lying nearby, his body bearing sores of unknown origin. Cassidy later claims to have stumbled on Juan while on a walk, though his wallet is found in her car. Josie suspects the involvement of Leo Monaco, Cassidy's deadbeat boyfriend, and Enrico Gomez, a local tough dating a colleague's daughter. Also coming under Josie's scrutiny are Juan's quiet, Spartan life and the activities of Juan's employer, Beacon Pathways, which is cleaning up a hazardous waste site in the area and may be conducting more nefarious operations. A tense climax with a flood, mudslide, explosives, and a possible murderer add to the suspense.
